The Nautical InstituteThe Nautical Institute is the world's leading international professional organisation for qualified Mariners.
Its principal aim is to promote high standards of knowledge, qualification and competence amongst those in control of seagoing craft.United Kingdom

Belgian Shipowners' AssociationThe Belgian Shipowners' Association protects and defends the interests of its members on a national and international level.Belgium

Diomar Services Inc.Diomar is a Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering company, with major activities shipbuilding and repair, sales of marine equipment and sales of spare parts. We are specialized in Dredging, we build dredge work-boats, multicats etc.Greece

PODs in Service

6/7/1999

The last few years have shown a breakthrough in the application of pod propellers. The concept of an azimuthing submerged electrically driven pull propeller provides various advantages concerning efficiency, controllability, comfort and vessel layout.The hydromechanical and structural performance has been investigated numerically and by means of scale model testing. In some cases speed and power as well as pressure fluctuations were measured during ship trials. The new devices however still have to prove their integrity and reliability in the long term.

MARIN initiated a Joint Industry Project in order to assess and evaluate the reliability and integrity of podded propulsors under operational conditions. The proposed project "Pods in Service" is aiming at measuring the performance and the loads experienced by pods in service conditions. Further objective is to provide a method for determining these loads in a design stage. Important for obtaining the results as well acceptance and implementation of the results is the industry wide participation of leading companies such as shipowners, yards, pod manufacturers and classification societies. It is proposed to conduct this work in a close co-operation with leading companies in this field. At present 2 cruise line operators, 3 ship owners, 4 major ship yards, 4 podded propulsor manufacturers, 2 navies and several classification societies have indicated their interest in the JIP. The project is envisaged to start in September 1999 and will run for 3 years.